CBS Partners with NFL for Thursday Night Football

CBS has partnered with the NFL to broadcast Thursday Night Footballfor the 2014 season, the network and the NFL announced Wednesday.

CBS and the NFL Network will simultaneously broadcast eight early season games. The NFL Network will also air eight late-season games leading up to the playoffs, resulting in a total of 14 Thursday night games and two late-season games on Saturdays.

CBS will produce 16 regular-season games with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. For the first time, NFL Network analysts will also be featured in the pregame, halftime and postgame shows alongside CBS Sports announcers.

"We are very pleased to build on our outstanding partnership with the NFL by expanding our coverage to Thursday nights," said CBS CEOLeslie Moonves. "CBS is a premium content company and the NFL represents the best premium content there is. I look forward to all this new deal will do for us not only on Thursday nights, but across our entire schedule."

It is unclear what the deal means for CBS' prime time Thursday lineup, led by ratings powerhouse Big Bang Theory.